We woke at about 6:30am with the ship heading towards the Hurtigruten terminal in Bergen.
It was thick fog which contradicted the weather forecast, it was supposed to be sunny all day.
The ship docked at 7am as scheduled, but we weren’t in any rush. We needed to have breakfast first and say goodbye to the wonderful staff in Røst restaurant. I felt quite tearful to leave these lovely people. We then needed to finish off packing our final bits but we didn’t need to leave until 9am latest so had plenty of time.
When we disembarked, we scanned our cruise card out for the final time before heading into the terminal. It was quite eerie outside with the fog. It was a total contrast to the first day that we arrived in Bergen, fifteen days ago.
JC ordered an Uber taxi which was great because he was already at the terminal. We didn’t want to catch the bus with having so much luggage to cart about. The taxi took us to the Bergen Børs hotel which cost just over £10.
We couldn’t check in but left our bags there and headed out for a walk into Bergen. Most of where we walked was familiar to us from the last time we had stayed here. We walked towards Bryggen, the UNESCO world heritage site, and it was eerily quiet. I could take some pictures of the Bryggen without too many people in the way.
We walked on towards the Northwest end of the harbour and saw a German warship, Fregatte Nordrhein Westfalen, docked there. We saw some of the crew stood on the deck and I was surprised how close we could get to the warship. There was only a metal fence between us.
We walked down to the end of the dock and then turned around to go back the way we had just come. We had no agenda today, just to enjoy the sights of Bergen and make the most of our last day.
Towards the harbour, we saw a small yacht that had been tethered to the quayside, with a lot of people gathering around. I realised that it was a Greenpeace vessel named “Witness”. I wasn’t quite sure what they were doing but I’ll come back to that later.
We walked round around the Vågen bay area of Bergen before looking in a few shops close to where the Clarion Hotel Admiral is (the first hotel we stayed in when we arrived a fortnight ago). We then noticed across the bay a giant inflatable pink octopus. I knew this was something to do with the Greenpeace vessel. As we walked back round to Bryggen, which took 20-30 minutes, we went to investigate said octopus.
There was now a large gathering around a display that had been set up and the octopus was there to attract attention. They were calling for a stop to deep sea mining in order to protect the wonders of the deep sea. The display showed photographs of sea creatures that they claim to be affected by anthropogenic activity.
We didn’t hang around. We passed some of the Bryggen buildings and I was drawn to a jewellery shop called Juhls Silver Gallery. The shop sold handmade pieces of silver jewellery in the Nordic design. My mum had given me some birthday money so I decided to make a purchase. I asked the young lady on the counter if I could look at a couple of silver necklaces. I tried both on and knew which one I wanted to buy. The necklace is pictured below.
Once I’d made my purchase, JC wanted to go for lunch. It was only just before midday but we had eaten breakfast early so we were both feeling a little peckish. We queued behind another couple of people who were waiting outside Bryggeloftet restaurant. This is another place we had been to on our previous visit.
https://www.bryggeloftet.no/frontpage
I ordered a prawn sandwich on sourdough with lettuce, lemon and mayonnaise. This is the traditional way for it to be served in Norway. It was a tad expensive but worth every penny. I washed it down with a nice glass of crisp Reisling.
By the time we had eaten, JC said we should go back to the hotel to see if we could check in. It’s a five minute walk away from the restaurant so made sense. We walked through the fish market on the way back and made a note to buy some cloudberry purée later.
The receptionist, Jenny, said we still couldn’t check in when we got there. Quite frankly, her whole attitude towards us was very unhelpful, unwelcoming and abrupt. I’ve never felt so undervalued as a customer ever.
We went off to the shopping area and browsed some shops. By then the sun had burned off the fog so we decided to go and sit outside a bar and make the most of the beautiful weather. We ordered our drinks via QR code and the service was good.
An hour or so later I received a message from our French friend Francis, who emailed to say that they and been delayed getting to Paris because of the fog. I was hoping that we would be ok for our Sunday flights.
When 3pm arrived, we went back to the hotel and we were able to check in. We took our mountain of bags with us to a room which had been upgraded. It was a nice spacious room with a lovely slipper bath and a view of the square outside. We chilled out for a bit and before I knew it, I had woken from an hour’s sleep. I definitely needed it after the early start that morning.
We then freshened up and went out to Bryggen. This is lovely when the sun is out, and we enjoyed a couple of drinks before JC decided he wanted to eat. We’d already spotted an Indian restaurant which was a million miles away from the food that we had been eating on the MS Trollfjord.
We were lucky to get in. The front of house staff said that there had been a cancellation so she fitted us in right away. Menus were brought to us along with some water. We were also brought a tasty popadom with some green dip as an appetiser. The server was really helpful with recommending dishes that I wouldn’t find too spicy. I only wanted a medium curry so she said that a chicken metiwala would be ok.
We definitely arrived at the right time because people were being turned away as it was busy with bookings. It was a lovely restaurant with helpful staff. Our curries came and the chicken in both dishes was cooked to perfection. The rice and garlic naan bread were also delicious.
After our meal we walked back through the fish market and made our purchase of cloudberry purée and were given two shot glasses for free from the market trader.
We then headed back to the hotel, taking a few photos before an early night.
jctraveller 
Leave a comment